Goshen officials warn residents of land deed scam

By Jason Siedzik

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

GOSHEN >> First Selectman Bill Duquette said that the town is taking proactive measures to help warn residents against a common scam.

The town has reposted a warning about the scam on its website, as well as posting the warning at Goshen Town Hall. The notice was released on Monday by Claudette Carveth of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection on March 4, and warns residents of a scam that purportedly charges for access to land records. These records, Duquette said, are readily available.

"We've learned that a company called Property Transfer Service is operating in Connecticut, sending homeowners notices recommending that they obtain their property deeds for a fee of approximately $80," Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein said in a press release. "This company is apparently running the same scheme as Record Retrieval Department, a company that we ousted from Connecticut early this year."

Duquette said that the warning was not prompted by any incident in his town. The press release states that a Connecticut resident received a notice from Property Transfer Service, which is based in Washington D.C., but Duquette said that "to my knowledge, we have not had any incidences in Goshen."

According to Rubenstin, the scam is not a new one, nor does it involve any unusual suspects. Property Transfer Service is reportedly owned and operated by a California man named Neil Camenker, who has previously been tied to three other businesses running the same scam. Camenker's other businesses include Secured Document Services and Compliance Document Services, while a third -- State Record Retrieval Board -- was ejected from Washington and Iowa in 2011.

"It's intriguing that this schemer, Neil L. Camenker, filed a lawsuit against another schemer for allegedly stealing his methods," Rubenstein said in a press release. "We believe that this scheme has no place in Connecticut under any name, and we are in communication with Mr. Camenker and Property Transfer Service to address this matter."

Carveth stated -- and Duquette concurred -- that land records are available directly from town clerks or online. If records are not available freely, Carveth said, they are generally available for a nominal fee of $1 or $2.